In April 2005, Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems won an contract to supply medium endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the Turkish military. Turkey’s local industry would provide sub-systems and services amounting to 30% of the contract.

The contract’s terms have been the subject of shifting reports, and the type of UAV was not specified in the official releases. Over time, however, clarity has emerged on several fronts. One front is the UAV type: the same Heron UAVs that serve with Israel, India, Canada, and other customers. Another front has involved problems with the contract, related to the weight of made-in-Turkey equipment. As clarity has emerged on those fronts, however, a 3rd front – the political front – is introducing complications.

Boston Ship Repair, LLC in Boston, MA recently won a $9.2 million firm-fixed-price contract for a 60-day regular overhaul/dry-docking of Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort [T-AH-20] for ship repair and maintenance. Work will include dry-docking and undocking of the ship; tank preservation; freeboard preservation; underwater hull painting; switchboard upgrade, sea valve repair; and pump overhauls. The contract includes options which could raise its value to $11.9 million.

Comfort’s primary mission is to provide emergency, on-site care for deployed U.S. military forces, and the ship is also used extensively for humanitarian engagement missions around the world. Work will be performed in Boston, MA, and is expected to be complete by April 13/12. This contract was competitively procured via a solicitation posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website, with more than 50 companies solicited and 3 offers received. US Navy Military Sealift Fleet Support Command manages the contract (N40442-12-C-5001).

The Pentagon hopes supply routes in Pakistan will be reopened soon. Driving through Russia and other countries surrounding Afghanistan is more expensive and takes more time.

5 Polish soldiers died from a roadside bomb explosion earlier today in Afghanistan. It appears they were driving one of the Cougars leased to Poland by the US.

Navistar finished its FY11 strongly with $13.96B in revenue and a $320M pre-tax income. Earlier this year billionaire investor Carl Icahn disclosed he had built positions of almost 10% in both Navistar and Oshkosh.

Boeing has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with 2 Brazilian companies to strengthen its Super Hornet bid in the F-X2 competition. Brazil has made it clear that offsets would bear a lot of weight in its decision, while Boeing is not giving up on the fighter market.

France takes delivery of the 1st of 8 more Airbus CN-235 light transports, 2 months ahead of schedule. They were bought as an immediate stopgap, due to A400M delays and a C160 fleet that’s aging out.

Eurocopter delivered the first 2 Ecureuil AS350 B2s of a total 9 helicopters ordered by the Ecuadorian Armed Forces in July 2010.

Will we see unmanned surface vessels (USVs) built and used to fight piracy?

Germany’s military is facing retention issues after it transitioned away from compulsory military conscription earlier this year.

The Australian National Audit Office released its 4th review [PDF] of selected defense acquisition projects. It finds that sticking to the schedule has been more difficult than remaining within budget or delivering promised capability. “[T]he total time for the 28 Major Projects to achieve their Final Operational Capability date is expected to be almost one third longer than was originally planned.”

The US State Department seems stalled in an investigation of sales of satellite tech by Thales Alenia Space (TAS) to China that the company says are “ITAR-free” (i.e. without export-restricted American components).

The US GAO finds that the Navy and Marine Corps’s accounting still show significant discrepancies with Treasury accounts aka Fund Balance with Treasury (FBWT): “As of April 2011, there were more than $22 billion unmatched disbursements and collections affecting more than 10,000 lines of accounting.”

US Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) Wastebook 2011 [PDF] first words: “Dear Taxpayer, Robot dragons, video games, Christmas trees, snow cone machines, and chocolate. This is not a Christmas wish list. These are just some of the ways the federal government spent your tax dollars this year.” At #3 is a $14M wind turbine project from the Air Force that didn’t quite work. Support, at least nominal, in unexpected places: the Office of Management and Budget. Coburn was one of the 13 Senators to vote against the FY12 defense bill and one of 32 to vote against the omnibus funding law that followed. Among Coburn’s objections: earmarks and bad accounting.

Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) is developing the Container Unitized Bulk Equipment system (CUBE) to make fuel and water cheaper to deliver to the front lines, as well as switch to containers that are easier to retrieve and reuse once they’re empty.

Will Boeing close its plant in Wichita, Kansas, and move KC-46A work elsewhere? Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo urges the company not to.

The Aerospace Industries Association (AIA)’s board elected David P. Hess, President of Pratt & Whitney, as its new chairman.

The Australian Department of Defence reviewed [PDF] redaction functionality in Adobe Acrobat Pro and found that it worked as intended.

US Secretary of State Clinton and Assistant Secretary Andrew Shapiro gave an update on landmine clearance and weapons destruction efforts in the video below, after releasing the 10th edition of To Walk the Earth in Safety:

The US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is working with the Air Force to increase use of commercial-grade Jet A fuel instead of military grade JP8. The latter freezes at a lower temperature but using commercial fuel will lower costs for little operational impact. DLA uses 3 additives to meet military requirements.

It’s also in part to mitigate rising fuel costs that the USAF has opened a KC-10 cargo load training facility at the Travis AFB in California.

In mid-December 2011, Northrop Grumman Corporation announced a 30-month, $540 million contract extension, covering Total System Support Responsibility (TSSR) for the 17-plane operational fleet of E-8C JSTARS ground surveillance and battle management planes, or about $1.06 million per plane per month. This contract runs from May 1/11 to Oct 31/13 (TSSR periods 11.5 to 13). To date, Joint STARS planes have accumulated over 72,650 combat hours in 6,750 missions, most recently over Libya.

Under TSSR, Northrop Grumman is partnered with the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (ALC) for all facets of base and depot level maintenance. While the planes are built on the Boeing 707’s C-135 military relative, Northrop Grumman manufactures the radar and systems, and is responsible for overall support. They’ve been providing comprehensive performance-based logistics support to the USAF/ Georgia ANG 116th Air Control Wing for over a decade, in the United States and at its forward operating locations. In late October, the E-8 J-STARS fleet’s mission availability and falling operating costs resulted in the 2011 Performance-Based Logistics Award from the US Secretary of Defense.

Hungary’s air force (Magyar Honvedseg Repulo Csapatai; MHRCS) shrank quickly after the Soviet Union fell, and its helicopter force was not spared. Its transport fleet reportedly consists of just 8 remaining Mi-8s and 7 related Mi-17s, including 2 helicopters that Finland discarded in favor of its new NH90s. The country remains active abroad, including a team training Afghanistan’s military to use Mi-17s, but their lift capacity is limited. That’s a potential issue at home as well, given vivid recent memories of the 2010 central European floods.

Like most European countries, Hungary is facing tight budgets and difficult decisions as 2011 ends. To address this situation, Hungary had been planning to buy about 30 used twin engine UH-1 Huey helicopters from the US military. The USAF is looking to replace its UH-1Ns with a new CVLSP buy, and the USMC is already replacing its aging UH-1Ns with much-improved new UH-1Y Venoms. In December 2011, the process of restoring Hungary’s helicopter fleet took its 1st official steps…

The USA’s E-8 JSTARS is a Boeing 707-300 derivative that provides a picture of the ground situation analogous to the E-3 AWACS’ picture of the air situation. JSTARS aircraft use their radars to determine the direction, speed and patterns of military activity of ground vehicles, helicopters, and even groups of people. They then send this information via secure data links with air force command posts, army mobile ground stations and centers of military analysis around the world.

These surveillance and communications relay capabilities are somewhat unique, and have proven extremely useful in a series of conflicts from Desert Storm in 1991 to the present day. Europe originally intended to field a similar, smaller AGS aircraft based on the Airbus A321, but that project has now been cut to a small fleet of RQ-4 Global Hawk UAVs. With the Global Hawk limited by its payload capacity, and the USA’s E-10A program canceled, the USA’s 17-aircraft operational JSTARS fleet is likely to remain very popular for some time to come. The question is how to keep that fleet relevant, flying, and allocated among all of the units clamoring for their attention.

The US Senate voted 86-13 for the FY12 defense bill which President Obama is now expected to sign. Congress is also on the verge of finding another midnight hour funding compromise to avoid a government shutdown, pending votes later today. Meanwhile Republicans and Democrats are putting stakes in the ground for or against rolling back the forthcoming sequester.

Some senators worry about how more work at military depots may be moved to the private sector; others want the Pentagon to stop getting in a situation where it ends up paying millions of dollars in extra fees to shipping companies because of containers that are returned late.

According to La Tribune [in French], the French defense sector looks about to go through a round of product portfolio shuffling, consolidation and privatization. Companies involved: Thales, DCNS, Nexter, but also potentially Safran, Renault Trucks Defense and Panhard.

France is about to launch the Elisa project [in French]. It’s a constellation of 4 smaller satellites flying at 700km altitude, that aims to refine the collection of intelligence about opposing radars (SIGINT/ ESM) from space. The DGA is preparing for an operational effort called CERES, which aims to be up and running by 2020.

More reports that Taiwan is moving toward its own submarine program. The Taipei Times adds one expert’s recommendation that the money and time might be spent on fast-attack missile boats like the Chinese Type 022. Which makes industrial sense, but not military sense, since the Chinese PLAAF will control the air.

a preliminary report [PDF] on defense procurement procedures by the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade

References Committee of the Australian Senate notes some improvements but oozes frustration about the bureaucratic mess it has to wade through: “[i]t only takes a cursory glance at a Defence procurement chart to see the convoluted and incomprehensible web of documents, committees and milestones.”